THE WOLFMAN Devours an R-Rating

Plagued by production problems from beginning to end, Joe Johnston’s adaptation of The Wolfman is coming to a theater near you on February 12, 2010 whether you like it or not. However, the chances of you liking it went up a little today as Universal happily announced that an R-rated cut of the film has won out over a tamer PG-13 version. Of course, an R-rating is no stamp of quality, but the difference in ratings means that instead of an action movie which a PG-13 rating implies, The Wolfman is going to get to be a longer, bloodier, and gorier horror film. Now let’s just hope it’s a good one.

Lawrence Talbot is a haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father, Talbot sets out to find his brother…and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself.

Lawrence Talbot’s childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother’s fiancée, Gwen Conliffe, tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline has come to investigate.

As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself…one he never imagined existed.

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